Tracy Beaker Returns The Return Of An Old Friend
by TvGeek98
Summary: When Mike announces that 4 people will be getting a new social worker, everyone is curious. This old friend proves to be just as ditzy as ever, but actually proves to be ever so slightly helpful this time! Set before Tracy went to work elsewhere.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Everybody in the Dumping Ground was going about their usual business, when Mike informed Gina that a new social worker would be visiting later that day. Tracy had not yet arrived, because she was late to work, as usual.

'I thought we could do with somebody else to help look after the kids, they're getting out of control!' Mike said, swiftly followed by a 'Turn that music down!' yelled though the hall.

'I suppose you're right,' Gina agreed 'but its a little short notice. What time will they be arriving? And how much experience have they got? Seriously Mike, you don't tell me anything these days.' Said Gina, as she sighed and rolled her eyes.

'If you just shut up for one moment, then I might be able to give you a bit more detail.' At that moment Tracy burst into the room and interrupted the conversation; she was very out of breath, and panting heavily.

'Ugh, I'm finally here, Cam's car broke down; I had to run most of the way. What were you saying about detail?'

'Mike's just been telling me about this new social worker he has coming to visit later, only, I haven't been told what time they're coming, if they have any experience, or even their name!' Tracy wasn't sure if Gina was genuinely angry with Mike, or whether she was just being sarcastic. Either way, Tracy was to busy worrying about the fact that she could barely breathe to notice.

'Haha, typical Mike, should I call the kids for lunch?' Laughed Tracy, as she began to regain her breath.

'What? Its lunchtime already? But she's coming at 1:00!' exclaimed Mike, in a fluster.

'Aha! So we know it's a she.'

'Tracy! This is no time to mess around, call the kids for a house meeting, they can have lunch afterwards.' Mike ordered. Tracy knew that he meant business, so she did as he said.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

All the children are sat around the kitchen table, whispering about what the meeting could be about.

'What's all this about?' Tee asked Carmen, 'There is only ever a house meeting about something REALLY important.'

'I don't know,' replied Carmen 'I hope it's nothing bad.'

'They probably want us to do more chores.' Frank said, rolling his eyes.

Everybody sighed, just as Mike, Gina and Tracy walked into the room.

'Well don't be too over-enthusiastic, you might tire yourselves out.' Said Tracy, everybody understood the sarcasm, apart from Gus, who just looked confused.

'Jeff's hungry.' Said Harry; 'He wants pizza.'

'Yes, well Jeff can have pizza once Mike has said what he needs to say.' Gina explained to Harry, who was too young to properly understand.

'Well spit it out then.' Said Johnny, who was starting to get irritated

'Ok,' Began Mike; 'The thing is, we have a new potential social worker visiting very soon. She has great experience and really understands you people. I would be very grateful if you could all be on your best behaviour for when she gets here.'

'Basically, what Mike is trying to say, is that today is not the day to be playing pranks.' Tracy put bluntly, looking directly at Frank, then Elektra.

'I don't play pranks without Liam.' Frank tried to reassure her, but Tracy was not convinced.

'And I haven't pulled of a decent prank in AGES.' Said Elektra with a smug grin on her face.

'You put salt in Tracy's tea just yesterday!' Carmen blurted out.

'That was you! I should have known' Sighed Tracy, glaring at Elektra.

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

'That'll be her' Said Mike, rushing to the door.

'Can we have lunch now?' Johnny asked, implying that he really did not wish to wait any longer for his food. Tracy appeared to ignore his question.

'We'll deal with this later.' She said to Elektra

'Ooooh, I'm so scared.' It was obvious that Elektra was not in the least bit scared, so Tracy just sighed, rolled her eyes and left the room, leaving Johnny to get his own lunch. Everybody else had, by this point got extremely bored and already gone back to their rooms.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

All of the kids were sat around the table. Tracy made everybody lunch as Mike and Gina let the new social worker in.

Mike, Gina and the social worker walked into the room, and Tracy stared open mouthed, and couldn't help herself from getting a fit of the giggle.

'Ok everybody; I'd like you to meet Elaine.' Mike said this seriously, but the kids could tell from the look on Tracy's face that she was not your average social worker.

'That's Elaine the pain that I wrote about in my book.' Tracy whispered to Carmen.

'I was thinking maybe I could get to know you all better by taking part in a little team bonding exercise.' Suggested Elaine, as everybody laughed under their breath.

'She's exactly as Tracy describes her in her book' Announced Gus out loud, checking his notebook. Everyone glared at Gus.

'Yes Tracy, I think its marvellous that you have written a book, although I have been so busy that I haven't had time to read it. I shall look forward to reading it some time soon.' Said Elaine, who seemed oblivious to the fact that everybody was trying not to laugh.

'Umm, no, there really is no need to do that, you see, it's not really to the best of my ability, and umm, I'd be ashamed for a woman as clever as you to read it.' Tracy was trying to cover up the fact that she had written bad things about Elaine in her book, but again, Elaine did not appear to realise that this was the case.

'It's really bad.' Lily insisted to Elaine, and everybody else slowly began to catch on, and they all started to say really bad things about Tracy's book.

'Well, I think that you are all being very unkind to Tracy, think about how you would feel if that was you. Are you alright Tracy?' – Asked Elaine, as everybody else in the room were all trying desperately hard not to laugh, even Mike and Gina, who have also read Tracy's book.

'Yes Elaine, I'm fine.' Tracy, who was unable to prevent herself from giggling, reassured her.

'Well I'm glad you all find this so amusing.' Elaine was not the best person in the world at understanding people, put it that way.

'Come on Elaine, why don't I make you a cup of tea?' Mike asked her, wanting to get her out of the room as he was sure Tracy (and the rest of the kids for that matter) would not be able to contain themselves for much longer.

Mike, Gina and Elaine swiftly exited the room, and everyone in the kitchen burst out laughing.

'Well this should be fun.' Elektra commented, as everybody left the table.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The following morning, all of the children were back to doing their own thing and Mike, Gina, Tracy and Elaine were in the office.

'House meeting!' Mike yelled from downstairs.

'What now?' Tee complained to Carmen and Lily.

'That's twice in one week. It's usually only once a month!' Gus declared whilst checking his notebook.

When everybody was gathered in the sitting room, Mike began;

'Ok, well, I haven't much to say here, so I'm going to hand you over to Elaine.'

'So, whose social worker are you? I mean, you can't be ALL of ours.' Gus asserted.

'That is to be discussed with those four people later. The point is, as you will all be seeing much more of me from now on, how about we do a little team bonding activity to get to know each other a little better.' Elaine proposed.

'How about ice skating?' Elektra suggested.

'Well, I'm not really sure that really has much to do with team bo-.' Elaine didn't get chance to finish the word 'bonding' because Elektra interrupted.

'Oh, it does. We will all have to help each other and support each other and if we're not very good, support from our friends will really help with our self-esteem.' Elektra went on. Really though, she just wanted to go ice skating, and thought she'd give trying to convince Elaine a go. She succeeded.

'Oh that's a wonderful idea! You look just like the kind of person who is really into team spirit!' Elaine said to Elektra.

Everybody started sniggering.

'What, you mean Elektra!' Questioned Liam, who, like Lily, had come to visit.

Elaine looked taken aback.

'Well, yes, don't you think she came up with a wonderful idea?' Elaine asked him.

'Hang on a minute, I don't think I'd be able to allow you all to go ice skating, we wouldn't want to risk any accidents now, would we?' Mike butted in, looking directly at Lily.

'What?' Lily blurted out; although she knew full well that Mike was on about the time she had fallen off the roof.

Everybody moaned and babbled until Mike eventually gave in.

'Oh, alright, you can go for an hour, Tracy and Elaine will take you. Go and get yourselves ready.' Mike was a big softie really, and they all knew it.

Everybody left the table and went to get ready.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

People were beginning to come out of their rooms, dressed in jumpers, coats, hats, scarves etc. Carmen, Tee and Lily were walking down the stairs.

'This is going to be amazing.' Carmen stated the obvious. After all, the had not had a treat like this in ages, and it was all thanks to Elektra, who had been clever enough to use Elaine's soppiness as an advantage.

'I wonder whose social worker she's going to be' Tee pondered, as Johnny came rushing down the stairs.

'Tee, over here!' Johnny whispered loudly.

'What?' Asked Tee, who was getting frustrated

'Just come!' Johnny said, he too was now beginning to get frustrated.

Tee shrugged and walked over to where Johnny was standing.

'Hey, hadn't you better phone your Dad so he knows where you're going?' Carmen reminded Lily.

'Oh yeah, back in a sec.' Lily went to the side and got out her phone to call her Dad.

'That woman is a pushover.' Johnny told Tee.

'So?' Asked Tee, who really wasn't following.

'So, we can use her to make finding us some decent foster parents her top priority.' Johnny explained to her. This is what he thought, anyway.

'Johnny I don't think…..' Tee began, but didn't get chance to finish her sentence because Johnny interrupted her.

'Think about it Tee, if we do the slightest good thing when she's around, we can get better files, she'll recommend us to lots of foster parents and we'll be turning them away by the ear!' Lets just say that Johnny had a very vivid imagination, a bit like Tracy when she was younger.

'I don't quite think that's how it works Johnny, and anyway, how do we know that she's going to be our social worker?' Tee said to him.

'We haven't had any luck with our current social worker for years; they'll want to try us with somebody different, and that somebody, just so happens to be Elaine!' Johnny went on.

'I still don't see how this is going to help us.' Tee was beginning to get bored now, and wanted to go and join Carmen and Lily, who had now cleared everything with her Dad, who was happy for her to go.

'Don't you get it? She'll do whatever we want. That means, that if we're really nice to her, and make a good first impression, then we can go all puppy-eyed and say how we haven't had a proper home or family for years, Elaine will take pity on us, and dedicate all of her spare time to finding us a decent place to live! Tee, this is the PERFECT opportunity to find ourselves a home and a family. We have to take it while we can.' Johnny insisted.

Tee felt awkward, she wanted to say something, but felt that she couldn't.

'What is it, what's the matter? Don't you want to get fostered?' Johnny asked her. He had never at any point felt the need to ask her about all of this, and had taken it for granted that she would be desperate to get fostered too. This however, was not the case, as Tee was happy at Elmtree house, where she had all her friends

'No, it's not that, it's just, well…' Tee didn't finish sentence because Johnny interrupted again.

'What!' Yelled Johnny, who was beginning to get very agitated.

'Well, I like it here. All of my friends are here, I want to stay here with Carmen and Lily and Tracy.' Tee said quietly, sounding upset.

'But Lily doesn't even live here any more! And Tracy's just a stupid care worker who thinks she knows everything just because she used to live here!' Johnny yelled. He didn't really mean it, but he was just really angry and upset with Tee. Unfortunately for him, Tracy appeared in the corridor, and neither he nor Tee noticed.

'When the truth is, she knows nothing about families, coz she's never had one.' Johnny carried on, before he realised that Tracy was standing right behind him.

Tracy was stunned and upset.

'Oh, Tracy I'm so sorry. I didn't…' Johnny didn't get chance to finish his sentence because Tracy gave him a taste of his own medicine and interrupted him.

'It's time to go now, we'll talk about this later.' Tracy told him, as she tried to remain calm. She was upset by what Johnny had said, but she managed not to show it.

Johnny walked off to the mini bus, and Tracy put her arm round Tee.

'Are you alright Tracy?' Tee asked her, looking concerned.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' Replied Tracy, who smiled and tried to forget about what Johnny had said about her, she was just far too curious though, and couldn't but ask Tee what was going on with Johnny.

'Oh, nothing, I'll tell you later, like you said, we have to go now.' Said Tee in an attempt to avoid the subject.

Tracy and Tee walked off to the mini bus and got in.

'Are we all ready?' Elaine asked them, though it was a pointless question, as they were missing no one and everybody was sat down and had their seatbelts on.

'YES!' Everybody else shouted at the same time, it was obvious that they were excited.

'Well let's go then!' Said Elaine, as she pulled the mini bus away from the driveway.

'Have fun!' Shouted Mike, who was standing on the driveway waving them off.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

They were in the area of the building where you hire boots etc, when Carmen glanced round and spotted a boy, she was quite surprised to see him. Lily noticed and she looked too.

'He's cute.' Lily whispered to Carmen, 'VERY cute!' Lily giggled, but Carmen acted like she hadn't heard.

Carmen was trying to do up her ice-skating boots, but was not having much success.

'Here, let me try.' Lily offered.

'No thanks.' Carmen put bluntly.

'But you're getting in a muddle, give 'em here.' Said Lily, bending over to try and do up Carmen's boot.

'I SAID, I CAN DO IT ON MY OWN!' Shouted Carmen, sounding really angry and frustrated.

'Alright! I was only trying to help.' Said Lily, who was confused as to why Carmen was acting like this.

'You don't need to have a go at her Carmen; she was only trying to help.' Tee chipped in.

'Stay out of this Tee.' Lily did not mean to sound unkind, but she could tell that something must have happened to upset Carmen.

'You know him don't you?' Lily asked Carmen.

Carmen began to cry. Tracy walked over and sat down next to Carmen.

'What's wrong?' Tracy asked her.

'Nothing, she'll be alright in a minute.' Lily told her, and she put her arm around Carmen.

'I think Carmen can speak for herself.' Tracy said to Lily.

At that moment Elaine walked over. She looked slightly flustered.

'Is...is everything okay?' Elaine asked, stuttering the word 'is.'

'We're fine here thanks, Elaine.' Said Tracy, who was trying not to sound sarcastic.

Elaine ran a hand through her hair, which made her look even more nervous. Carmen had now begun to stop crying and was wiping her eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The ice rink was noisy and lively. Everybody was happily skating around, enjoying the treat, which was a rarity in The Dumping Ground, as, because of the number of people, it was quite expensive to go anywhere. Carmen, Lily and Tee were skating in a group together, helping each other out. Lily was skating really well, Tee was slightly wobbly and Carmen was absolutely useless.

'This is fun!' Lily shouted. They had to shout because of the sound of the music blaring over the speakers.

'I THINK I'm getting the hang of it.' Yelled Carmen, but had to be saved by Lily, because talking had distracted her from skating, causing her to lose balance and almost fall backwards into whichever poor soul was behind her.

All three girls burst out laughing. They hadn't enjoyed themselves so much in months, possibly even years, and Lily had already started to consider taking up ice skating as a hobby, if her Dad would allow it, and if Mike would be willing to take her when she was on rest bite care.

'Hmm, well, I'm managing to stay upright.' Tee said cautiously, hanging on to the barrier to prevent herself from doing the same thing as Carmen.

Carmen fell backwards, but was caught by the boy she had previously skated away from.

'GO AWAY!' Screamed Carmen, who was obviously upset and angry with him.

Tracy heard Carmen yell and skated over as quickly as she could.

'Whoa, Carmen, what's the matter?' Asked a very confused Tracy.

'Just tell him to go away!' Yelled Carmen, who was now in tears again.

'Yeah, I think it might be time for you to go now.' Lily said sarcastically to the boy.

'Sorry about this, but I think it might be better if you were to leave now.' Tracy continued. Boy skated off, with a smug look on his face.

'Come on Carmen, its okay, he's gone now.' Tracy reassured her, as her, Tee and

Lily took Carmen off the ice and into the toilets.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Meanwhile, the boys were having the time of their lives. Johnny, Liam, Frank and even Gus were skating, laughing, and falling over every now and then. Tyler joined Elektra, and they skated round planning all sorts of tricks they could play on the others when they returned to Elmtree House. All of a sudden, Johnny confused everybody by saying something that no one ever expected anyone to say.

'I hope Elaine will get to be mine and Tee's social worker.' Everybody just looked at him like he was mad, and Gus pulled his note book out of his pocket and proceeded to tell Johnny his list of bad things about Elaine, gathered from, mainly Tracy, but from the others as well, as most of them had found things that they did not like about her as soon as they laid eyes on her. It was about 15 minutes before Gus was finally finished, and everyone else had tuned out on bad thing number 3.

'ANYWAY, as I was saying, me and Tee have had no look whatsoever with our current social worker, maybe Elaine could prove to be our fairy godmother?'

Liam and Frank could not help but burst out with a short laugh, which sounded more like they were saying 'Pffft' than anything else, because they just could not understand where Johnny was coming from.

'Her? Fat chance!' Liam was quick to assume, but Johnny set his heart on proving Liam, Frank and Gus wrong.

Back in the toilets, Carmen was busy explaining to Tracy, Lily and Tee how that boy was her Mum's boyfriend's Son, who always used to tease and bully her when him and his Dad were living with her and her Mum.

'But it can't be.' Tracy insisted, 'Your Mum moved to Spain to live with her boyfriend.

'And this must mean they're back, they've come to get me!' Carmen was beginning to get very stressed and panicked.

'But why would they do that?' Lily asked; 'She already made it pretty clear that she wanted her boyfriend over you.'

'My Mum likes fancy things, as does her boyfriend. They get me, they get my child benefit allowance, meaning they can buy more things.' Carmen explained.

'That's horrible!' Exclaimed Tee, which was quickly followed by a short reply of

'That's life.' From Lily. Carmen expressed her worry that she thought her Mum was going to try to kidnap her, because when she tried to get Carmen by following the proper procedures she failed.

'But that's hardly going to help her get child benefit money!' Tracy almost shouted, but realised that she was in a public place, so she better not.

'My Mum isn't exactly smart enough to think that far ahead, once there's an idea in her mind, there's no stopping her.

'So a bit like Tracy then?' Lily asked, in an attempt to lighten the mood. Surprisingly, her attempt worked.

'Come on; let's go back on the ice.' Tracy said; 'I'll skate with you, and we won't let anyone take you, I promise.' Lily, Carmen and Tee headed back onto the ice for the last half an hour of skating.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

When everybody was back at the house, Tracy went to discuss Carmen's encounter with Mike, while Gina took Lily home, Jack came to pick Liam up, and the others went back to doing their own thing. Elaine just sat in the kitchen and waited until Mike and Tracy had finished talking about what was best for Carmen.

'Would you like me to make you some tea?' Johnny startled Elaine, as she was busy reading her magazine and did not see Johnny enter the room.

'You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!' She exclaimed angrily, but forgave him pretty quickly and accepted his offer of tea.

'What a lovely boy,' She thought to herself 'I wonder why nobody has fostered him yet?'

About half an hour later, Gina was back and Mike and Tracy had finished in the office, so Mike called Johnny, Tee, Gus and Elektra down from upstairs. They did not know it yet, but for various different reasons Mike and Gina had decided that it would be best if they were given a different social worker to the ones they had already, and that new social worker, was Elaine.

'Ok you four,' Elaine began, 'I am going to be your new social worker from now on.' Johnny couldn't help but utter 'YESSS!' under his breath; the other three and Tracy all looked at him like he was going mad. Elaine paused for a brief second, and then continued.

'I am going to try my very best to get each one of you fostered, IF, that's what you want.' Gus was busy getting each and every word of this down in his notebook, Johnny was beaming like the sun, Tee looked rather uncomfortable, and Elektra was sitting there picking at her nails like she really couldn't care less, although deep down, she did care and wanted to get fostered, fostered by people who really cared about her and didn't want to change her.

'It's getting late, so Elaine is going to go now, let me know when you've decided want you want to do.' Mike told them.

'And you can always talk to me if you're not sure what you want to do.' Tracy said this with mainly Tee in mind, but she had a feeling that Elektra might just come to her for help as well…

Johnny knew what he wanted. He wanted to be fostered. Gus knew what he wanted. He wanted to stay at Elmtree house, where he was happy and knew everyone. Elektra knew what she wanted. She wanted to be fostered, but had spent so long acting like she didn't care, and was not sure she was ready to reveal her real self just yet. Tee hadn't got a clue what she wanted. She wanted to make Johnny happy, but didn't want leave her friends at The Dumping Ground behind.

But Tracy knew, that everything would work out perfectly for each of them, because there's someone out there for everybody.


End file.
